eddie kendricks - goin' up in smoke

i think the temptations were one of the best motown vocal groups mostly because of the later works with norman whitfield on production which pushed the envelope on what the motown sound was. now it may sounds like i've listened to motown, norman whitfield and whoever else all my life but i haven't so this is just my halfarsed opinion about it. but when i first heard the full 12 minute version of the temptations "papa was a rollin' stone" i was blown away and that song forever is one of my favourite song of all time.

but enough about that one since kendricks had left the temptations before they recorded that track and this song is not related to it at all, just wanted to tell what my favourite song is. this track i have no real relation to it other than that i heard it on a youtube clip featuring a frankie knuckles interview.

said youtube clip

in that clip he tells the story chicago djs tell about when disco died and good uptempo records were rare, they would use older records and edit them and whatever. then he proceeds to play this song and then he tries do an live edit on reel-to-reel like he did back in the day. that song blew my mind in how awesome and flamboyant it was. i had to have it and lucky me found the record in one of the second hand stores i usually find records. i think i bought the eddie kendricks lp, a sos band lp and a inner life lp.

there is a good dynamic in the song and the sense of over the top campy disco flamboyance along with moody breakdowns had me sold. the rest of the records on the lp are nice as well but i've only given them a couple of needle drops so i can't give a detailed opinion about it. edit: there are a number of great songs including "tenderoni" & "music man" and the whole record is brilliant.

this is one of those disco records that i've tried to use in sets and failed every time since it doesn't hold timing well and it doesn't give you any leeway. the few breaks are to short to extend and the intro is big and musical and extending that is just stupid. this is why i've yet to date never heard a good re-edit of the song, yes that super value edit is craptactular and just makes it boring. for the people that is going to say that there is a ten city cover, i am well aware of it but i am just not fond of it.

buy here (amazon) | youtube

edit, there is actually a really good edit of the song on soundcloud by john morales. he used to have it up for download but not anymore. scratchnsniff's version is good as well but the he did a crappy loop job in the breakdown, doesn't flow really well. did not like babyface/alex ferrazi's edit because of the drums he added and same goes for the "purple nights edit".